OpenStack Machine Component Settings

Understand the settings and options you can configure for an OpenStack machine component in the vRealize Automation blueprint design canvas.

General Tab

Configure general settings for an OpenStack machine component.

Table 1. General Tab Settings

Setting

Description

ID

Enter a name for your machine component, or accept the default.

Description

Summarize your machine component for the benefit of other architects.

Display location on request

In a cloud environment, such as vCloud Air, this allows users to select a region for their provisioned machines.

For a virtual environment, such as vSphere, you can configure the locations feature to allow users to select a particular data center location at which to provision a requested machine. To fully configure this option, a system administrator adds data center location information to a locations file and a fabric administrator edits a compute resource to associate it with a location.

Apply a reservation policy to a blueprint to restrict the machines provisioned from that blueprint to a subset of available reservations. Fabric administrators create reservation policies to provide an optional and helpful means of controlling how reservation requests are processed, for example to collect resources into groups for different service levels, or to make a specific type of resource easily available for a particular purpose. If your fabric administrator did not configure reservation policies, you do not see any available options in this drop-down menu.

Machine prefixes are created by fabric administrators and are used to create the names of provisioned machines. If you select Use group default, machines provisioned from your blueprint are named according to the machine prefix configured as the default for the user's business group. If no machine prefix is configured, one is generated for you based on the name of the business group.

If your fabric administrator configures other machine prefixes for you to select, you can apply one prefix to all machines provisioned from your blueprint, no matter who the requestor is.

Configure the maximum and minimum number of instances users can request for a deployment or for a scale in or scale out action. If you do not want to give users a choice, entering the same value in the Minimum and Maximum fields configures exactly how many instances to provision and disables scale actions against this machine component.

XaaS components are not scalable and are not updated during a scale operation. If you are using XaaS components in your blueprint, you could create a resource action for users to run after a scale operation, which could either scale or update your XaaS components as required. Alternatively, you could disable scale by configuring exactly the number of instances you want to allow for each machine component.

Build Information Tab

For record-keeping and licensing purposes, select whether machines provisioned from this blueprint are classified as Desktop or Server.

Provisioning workflow

The following provisioning workflows are available for an OpenStack machine component:

CloudLinuxKickstartWorkflow

Provision a machine by booting from an ISO image, using a kickstart or autoYaSt configuration file and a Linux distribution image to install the operating system on the machine.

CloudProvisioningWorkflow

Create a machine by starting from either a virtual machine instance or cloud-based image.

CloudWIMImageWorkflow

Provision a machine by booting into a WinPE environment and installing an operating system using a Windows Imaging File Format (WIM) image of an existing Windows reference machine.

When using a WIM provisioning workflow in a blueprint, specify a storage value that accounts for the size of each disk to be used on the machine. Use the total value of all disks as the minimum storage value for the machine component. Also specify a size for each disk that is large enough to accommodate the operating system.

OpenStack image

Select an available OpenStack image. An OpenStack image is a template that contains a software configuration, including an operating system. The images are managed by OpenStack accounts. You can refine the list of OpenStack image names in the display by using the Filters option in the Names column drop-down menu.

Key pair

Key pairs are optional for provisioning with OpenStack.

Key pairs are used to provision and connect to a cloud instance. They are also used to decrypt Windows passwords and to log in to a Linux machine.

The following key pair options are available:

Not specified

Controls key pair behavior at the blueprint level rather than at the reservation level.

Auto-generated per business group

Specifies that each machine provisioned in the same business group has the same key pair, including machines provisioned on other reservations when the machine has the same compute resource and business group. Because the key pairs are associated with a business group, the key pairs are deleted when the business group is deleted.

Auto-generated per machine

Specifies that each machine has a unique key pair. The auto-generated per machine option is the most secure method because no key pairs are shared among machines.

Flavors

Select one or more OpenStack flavors. An OpenStack flavor is a virtual hardware template that defines the machine resource specifications for instances provisioned in OpenStack. Flavors are managed within the OpenStack provider and are imported during data collection.

Machine Resources Tab

Enter a minimum and maximum number of CPUs that can be provisioned by this machine component.

Memory (MB): Minimum and Maximum

Enter a minimum and maximum amount of memory that can be consumed by machines that are provisioned by this machine component.

Storage (GB): Minimum and Maximum

Enter a minimum and maximum amount of storage that can be consumed by machines that are provisioned by this machine component. For vSphere, KVM (RHEV), SCVMM, vCloud Air, and vCloud Director, minimum storage is set based on what you enter on the Storage tab.

When using a WIM provisioning workflow in a blueprint, specify a storage value that accounts for the size of each disk to be used on the machine. Use the total value of all disks as the minimum storage value for the machine component. Also specify a size for each disk that is large enough to accommodate the operating system.

Properties Tab

You can add individual and groups of custom properties to the machine component by using the Properties tab. You can add also custom properties and property groups to the overall blueprint by using the Properties tab when you create or edit a blueprint by using the New Blueprint or Blueprint Properties page, respectively.

You can use the Custom Properties tab to add and configure options for existing custom properties. Custom properties are supplied with vRealize Automation and you can also create property definitions.

Table 4. Properties > Custom Properties Tab Settings

Setting

Description

Name

Enter the name of a custom property or select an available custom property from the drop-down menu. For example, enter the custom property name Machine.SSH to specify whether machines provisioned by using this blueprint allow SSH connections. Properties only appear in the drop-down menu if your tenant administrator or fabric administrator created property definitions.

Value

Enter or edit a value to associate with the custom property name. For example, set the value as true to allow entitled users to connect by using SSH to machines provisioned by using your blueprint.

Encrypted

You can choose to encrypt the property value, for example, if the value is a password.

Overridable

You can specify that the property value can be overridden by the next or subsequent person who uses the property. Typically, this is another architect, but if you select Show in request, your business users are able to see and edit property values when they request catalog items.

Show in Request

If you want to display the property name and value to your end users, you can select to display the property on the request form when requesting machine provisioning. You must also select overridable if you want users to provide a value.

You can use the Property Groups tab to add and configure settings for existing custom property groups. You can create your own property groups or use property groups that have been created for you.

Table 5. Properties > Property Groups Tab Settings

Setting

Description

Name

Select an available property group from the drop-down menu.

Move Up and Move Down

Control the precedence level of listed property groups in descending order. The first-listed property group has precedence over the next-listed property group and so on.

View Properties

Display the custom properties in the selected property group.

View Merged Properties

Display all the custom properties in the listed property groups in the order in which they appear in the list of property groups. Where the same property appears in more than one property group, the property name appears only once in the list based on when it is first encountered in the list.